March 2025, at home…

April 11, 2025 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

We made our way to the spring equinox with a lunar eclipse, a St Patrick’s Day parade in the neighborhood; more knitting, quilting, home improvement, and reading; blooming plants in the neighborhood; three wildflower hikes in the Columbia River Gorge (next post), and a lot of rain…

Lunar Eclipse, March 13th

My photo, with camera set to fireworks…The sky is light because of the time delay, but the stars are out.

My husband’s photo, with fancy zoom lens on tripod.

March 16th – Neighborhood St Patricks Day annual parade…

Knitting:

Quilting –

I sewed together these quilt blocks. They may become pillows – I’m still trying to decide.

Home Improvement –

New dining room blinds and patched wallpaper

Reading –

Nancy Russell and John Yeon, Columbia River Gorge

I learned so much in the two books about Nancy Russell and John Yeon, two conservationists who worked indefatigably for many years to create the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, and then to implement the plan. It was a huge political and fundraising challenge to cobble together all the different government and formerly private lands, preserving the ecosystems and creating many of the trail systems we hike regularly. I think grateful thoughts every time we drive through or hike in the gorge!

Neighborhood blooms –

A change of plans…

At the end of the month we cancelled our planned trip to the east coast to visit family in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, so that my husband could get surgery on his neck, where a bone spur on the C3 vertebra was causing neurological symptoms and weakness. The procedure will be during the first week of April. More on the outcome next month… ( Update – it went well, he is recovering as expected.)

Two final notes –

1) I still have not gotten the hang of blog editing in the block mode on this site, so it is taking me a long time to create posts.

2) We are trying our best to stay positive in a constantly chaotic, hateful regime, so I am posting a couple of positive internet memes here at the end, to remind me to stay hopeful…

Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge birds, a lunar eclipse, and new knitting projects

January 23, 2019 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

1/19/2019 Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, WA, in the fog

We drove the auto tour in the southern, River S Unit, to see if anyone was out today.

We saw several bald eagles through the fog all along the route.

It was a great day for Great Blue Herons near the road.

Great blue heron standing in the field beyond a flock of Canada geese.

We also saw swans and more geese,

lots of nutria swimming, and this one crossing the road:

lots of ducks,

We watched a hawk take a bath on a sign near the exit.

1/20/2019 Lunar Eclipse

The clouds cleared for about 10 minutes. We saw the moon just as it was entering totality. My camera could not see it once it went dark, but we briefly saw the orange glow of the blood red moon before the clouds closed in again.

My best image, hand held and zoomed in.

New knitting

I cast on another pair of socks from Berocco Sox yarn – plain vanilla with a 3×3 cable down the sides.

And a Brioche Watch Cap from Berroco Millifiori yarn – this makes a cushy and shiny fabric, and works up fast!

Good deeds for the week – I cleaned out my sewing cabinet and organized my threads and notions, so now I should be able to find things and get back to sewing. And I enabled a new sock knitter!

Neighborhood Poetry Posting

Rest In Peace, Mary Oliver. Your poems will live forever.

18. Late Summer on Mt Adams, Stagman Ridge Trail

August 24, 2017November 9, 2017 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

Stagman Ridge, Mt. Adams, Washington 8/20/2017 (#42)

Looking for a hike that avoided wildfire smoke and eclipse traffic, we headed to the west side of Mt. Adams, north of Trout Lake, WA. This was our first time hiking this trail. We like to hike in Bird Creek Meadows this time of year, but that area is closed due to the massive Cougar Creek Fire of 2015. The area around Stagman Ridge was also recently burned, by the Cascade Creek Fire of 2012. The trail traverses through burned forest, with occasional forays into unburned terrain. The silver lining is mountain views through the ghost trees.

In many burned places the underlayer is green, topped by a pink swath of fireweed. Pearly everlasting and golden rod are abundant at lower elevations.

Pearly everlasting, fireweed, goldenrod

fireweed

pearly everlasting

golden rod

Higher up, the last of the asters, lupine and licorice root were hanging on in shady areas.

aster

lupine

penstemon

licorice root

thistle

orange agerosis

dwarf bramble

aster

corn lily

The open meadow at about mile 3 was green but past bloom – most likely thanks to the intense two week heat wave of early August. I would like to return when this meadow is in full bloom – with the open view of Mt Adams to the east – it is a lovely spot.

Glacier close up

We continued on past the meadow to the Graveyard trail junction, then crossed the small creek and headed west toward Lookingglass Lake. Riparian flowers lined the creek crossings.

gentian

second creek

paintbrush

cinquefoil

first creek

We decided the crossing of Cascade Creek looked difficult so we turned back after a rest at the water with great views of the mountain.

On the way down, we noticed the distance views of Mt St Helens, Mt Hood and west toward Indian Heaven.

Mt St Helens

Mt Hood

There were plenty of huckleberries for the picking. Berries, flower seedheads and tints of red foliage in the huckleberry and vine maple foreshadow the coming of fall.